I find it amazing that something that is more of an ACF activity, regardless of what we might say or think, is looking like (given the excitement) becoming something of a mainstay in the Air Cadets. It would seem that eventually HQAC / RAF are sending out a clear message, they have given up on anything to do with getting powered and non-powered flying up to the levels it should be, as that is in the too bloody difficult box, and are chucking out a few crumbs, which people it seems are lapping up, in lieu of what we should be doing given we are parented by the RAF.
The next thing will be the locations to do these things. Fieldcraft might be a good option if you are located in or near places where there are concentrations of Army training areas. None of the squadrons near to us do much if any fieldcraft, but those closer to the allowed areas do. Which affects our local ACF as much as us and talking to my counterparts there, they aren’t getting the time. One, an old county Major said that their last 2 or 3 camps, which used to be lots of learning followed by an exercise, have become activity camps, due to the lack of availability of training area time. he said to me he was primed to do a long weekend and it got binned 2 days before, because the Army needed the area and accommodation.
So while it would seem many on here are very excited, just because we can, doesn’t mean we will.
What really strikes me is that we could have been doing this properly by now, if DYER had been implemented and the move towards “purple” made. But it looks as if we are going to be doing this our way and the ACF their way, when it would make much, much more sense to just do it one way. But then that wouldn’t mean people at HQAC and elsewhere in the Air Cadets busily reinventing the wheel and chucking out a few files and as I say CFAV in the Air Cadets lapping up these crumbs.
It strikes me as ironic that using pyro etc for so long a no no, is suddenly allowed, none of the risks etc have gone away, but it will be OK as we’ll do a few days of in-house training and it will all be fine, yet we can’t seek our own powered and glider flying opportunities, where the people doing it will be as well trained and experienced as anyone in the Air Cadets. It only takes one cadet to panic with a thunderflash and the house of cards will come tumbling down and fieldcraft will stop dead. Because it may not have happened, doesn’t mean it won’t, who’d have thought we’d get Air Cadets in mid-air collisions?
Before anyone pipes up, if cadets want to do this and the opportunities arise, I won’t be stopping them, just I won’t be anywhere near it. I stopped playing soldiers when I was 11.